Illuminable signaling device



April 1934- M. MARSHALL 1,954,740

ILLUMINABLE SIGNALING DEVICE Filed Dec. 30, 1952 1 WHEN 5s WITNESSES L ZZ L II?% h at W BMW. C ea a ar's a ATTORNEYS Patented Apr. 10, 1934 f gm rso STATES PATENIE OFFICE ILLUMINABLE SIGNALING DEVICE Leatta M. Marshall, New York, N. Y.

Application December 30, 1932, Serial No. 649,655

3 Claims.

This invention relates to signaling devices, and refers more particularly to an improvement in an illuminable signal for motor vehicles.

The invention primarily comprehends an illuminable direction indicator which may either be made as a separate unit for application to the front and/or to the rear of the vehicle or incorporated in the same casing which houses the tail light, stop light and back-up light or any other combination thereof.

One of the outstanding objects of the invention resides in the construction and arrangement of indicia bearing stencil plates and their relation to a translucent screen or panel and lamps, by virtue of which combination and arrangement, a plurality of images are defined and cast by the light through the openings of the stencil plates onto the panel or screen so as to cause the images or indicia to appear of uniform intensity and size and to occupy a similar centralized location on the screen while projected from different points with relation to the screen or panel.

As a further feature, the invention resides in a direction indicator which is so constructed and arranged that it may be conveniently located within a housing for a tail light, stop light and back-up light or any combination thereof without interfering with the functioning of the various lights and without requiring any material increase in the size of the casing or housing.

The invention has for a further object to provide an illuminable direction indicator which employs but few and simple parts capable of ecor nomical production and assembly and which is highly efficient for the intended purpose.

With the above recited and other objects in view, reference is had to the following description and accompanying drawing, in which there is exhibited one example or embodiment of the invention, while the claims define the actual scope of the same.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a face view of a casing which houses a combined tail light, stop light, back-up light and direction signal and indicating the direction signal illuminated for a right turn.

Figure 2 is a similar view illustrating the direction signal illuminated for a left turn.

Figure 3 is a face view of the casing with the rear cover plate and panels removed.

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken approximately on the section line indicated at 44 in Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view taken approximately on a plane indicated by the line 5-5 in Figure 1.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view of the wiring system.

Referring to the drawing by characters of reference, a casing is shown which includes a rear wall 10, a forwardly projecting marginal wall 11 and forwardly projecting partition walls 12 subdividing the casing into a plurality of compartments designated by the reference characters a, b and c. The front wall of the casing is defined by a removable frame 13 carrying lenses l4 and 15 respectively disposed over the compartments a and b and carrying a translucent screen or panel 16 disposed over the compartment 0. The compartment a houses a lamp 1'? which when illuminated constitutes a stop light, while the compartment b houses a lamp 18 which constitutes a tail light. The compartment c,in addition to housing a lamp 19 serving as a back-up light, has arranged therein a pair of contiguous signal lamp casings 20 and 21 which are respectively provided with arcuate front walls 22 and 23 formed with stencil openings 24 and 25 respectively. As illustrated in the present instance, the stencil openings 24 and 25 are in the form of arrows pointing in opposite directions, the arrow 24 being pointed to indicate a left turn and the arrow 25 to indicate a right turn. Lamps 26 and 27 are disposed respectively within the casings 20 and 21 at a point eccentric to the point from which the arc of the stencil walls 22 and 23 is struck, so that the lamps are disposed closer to one portion of each of the walls. The arrows or any equivalent indicia stenciled in the walls 22 and 23 are so proportioned and arranged that the lamps when lighted will cast substantially uniformly illuminated images on approximately the same centralized location of the panel or screen 16 to display the directional indicating arrows or equivalent stenciled indicia.

In practice, it is, of course, understood that through the medium of a suitable manually controlled switch arm 28, preferably located on the steering post, the circuit will be selectively closed by engaging said switch arm with one of a pair of spaced contacts 29 and 30 to illuminate the lamps 26 and 27 for selectively displaying the directional signals or indicia. The tail light lamp 18 will be controlled by the usual switch 31 while the stop light lamp 17 and back-up light lamp 19 will be automatically controlled by their respective switches 32 and 33. r

In use, the signal light units may be either embodied in the casing and in combination with the various other lights previously described or, obviously, said units may be housed in a separate casing independent of these lights, at the rear of the vehicle and at the front of the vehicle to signal the direction of an indicated turn to approaching traffic or pedestrians. It is also within the scope of the invention to employ the lamp casings 20 and 21 as units with stenciled indicia thereon to be optionally displayed on a single screen for any purpose desired, and while a single and preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it is to be understood that this is not intended as a limitation upon the scope of the appended claims, as variations and modifications which fall within the range of the claims may be resorted to when desired.

What is claimed is:

1. An illuminable signaling device comprising a housing having a translucent front panel, a lamp, a casing enclosing said lamp disposed behind said panel and having a curved wall confronting said panel, said housing having a rear wall, the curved wall being located in spaced relation between the translucent panel and the rear wall of the housing, said curved wall being struck on a center eccentric to the lamp and provided with distorted stenciled indicia, the relative position of the lamp, curved wall and panel in cooperation with the curvature of the wall and shape of the indicia being such that an image of the stencil of uniform size will be projected onto the panel, the lamp casing having a side wall inclined at an angle to the rear wall of the housing for aiding in reflecting light rays through the stenciled indicia.

2 An illuminable signaling device comprising a housing including a translucent front panel and a rear wall, a pair of lamp casings secured in juxtaposition to the rear wall, each casing having an outer side wall inclined at an angle to the rear wall of the housing and a curved front wall spaced from the translucent panel, each curved front wall having distorted stenciled indicia thereon, a lamp in each casing located adjacent that portion of the stenciled indicia which is farthest away from the panel, the portion of the stenciled indicia nearest the lamp being reduced in size the relative position of the lamp, curved wall and panel in co-operation with the size and shape of the indicia and curvature of the wall being such that when an image of either stenciled indicia is projected on the panel said image will be of uniform size and illumination and substantially fill the whole panel, said inclined walls serving to aid in reflecting light rays through the respective indicia on to the panel.

3. An illuminable signaling device comprising a horizontally elongated housing, a translucent panel defining the front of said housing, lamp compartments at the upper and lower intermediate portions of the main housing, the walls of said last mentioned compartments projecting into the horizontally elongated housing and forming an intermediate restricted portion in the latter and the panel in front of the same, a pair of lamp casings secured in juxtaposition to the rear wall of the housing between the inwardly projecting compartments and in horizontal alignment, each casing having a lamp, and a curved front wall spaced from the translucent panel, each curved front wall having a distorted stenoiled arrow thereon co-operating with the lamp in the casing to project an arrow on said panel, the respective projected arrows pointing in opposite directions and each substantially filling the panel with the intermediate shaft portion located in the restricted portion of the panel.

LEATTA M. MARSHALL. 

